Along with spiders and rattlesnakes the nursing home has been lodged in the popular consciousness as something to be feared. To a great degree this is a reaction to the way that the baby boomers dealt with the old age of their parents, and it's an inaccurate reaction to the options available today. Today's seniors have numerous options, including senior home care, assisted living, and care facilities that specialize in certain conditions, which make the phobia of nursing homes obsolete.

Historically, the most common living situation of an elderly person was in the home of a child or other relative. Often the eldest child, to whom the elderly person's home would eventually be bequeathed, would live in that home during the parent's old age, in a sense earning his inheritance by living up to his filial duty. However, the boom years after the second world war created a generation with tremendous individual affluence that preferred to remain independent as their years advanced.

The baby boomers, who had been raised on (and spoiled by) a groundswell of affluence, grew up to be a very self-indulgent generation. It was fine that their parents didn't want to live with them; they didn't want the burden of caring for them. And when those parents reached the age where they needed assistance their children put them in nursing homes. Thirty years ago, those homes were basically places where terminally ill patients sat in front of the TV all day. People didn't go there to live; they went there to die, and anybody faced with the prospect of entering a nursing home fought it tooth and nail.

Over the past twenty years or so, care facilities have steadily improved. People have become more aware of inadequacies and have pushed for regulatory reforms. More retirees who can afford quality care have flooded the system with money. And new concepts of care have made the average senior care facility today a remarkable improvement from the past.

In addition to care facilities, providers of home care have proliferated greatly, allowing seniors to stay in their homes for much longer than they ever could before. Home care agencies send staff to a patient's house, with levels of service ranging from periodic visits to 24-hour care. This means that elderly people who suffer from dwindling mobility or other issues can remain much more independent.

Assisted living has gone through a revolution, with more large facilities providing various levels of care to elderly individuals in all stages of the advancement of age. Those who can still be independent live in virtual freedom, but it something happens they just move into another part of the same facility that provides more intensive care.

Facilities that specialize in a certain kind of care have also proliferated. These are nursing-type facilities designed specifically for patients who suffer from, for example, blindness or memory loss. By specializing, they can keep their employees up to date on the latest advancements in their area, ensuring that they provide patients with the highest possible level of care.

As baby boomers retire, they have many more options than their parents had. With the availability of home care, with diverse options for assisted living, and with condition-specific care facilities, they will never share the fear their parents had of being shoved in a home to die.